Saturday, December 31, 2016

In her New Year’s speech, Chancellor Angela Merkel affirmed that her government will win the fight against terrorism with compassion and denied that her open-door mass migration policy, which directly brought terrorists to Germany, was wrong.

In the federal chancellor’s New Year address to Germany, Merkel asserted that the terror attacks committed by Islamist migrants in Würzburg, Ansbach, and recently at a Christmas market in Berlin were not attacks on Western civilisation but an attack on ‘refugees’ and Germany’s willkommenskultur (‘welcome culture’).

She stated terrorists “mock [the willingness of Germany to help] with their deeds [acts of terrorism], like they mock those who really need and deserve our protection.”

Adding that it is “particularly bitter and repulsive” when terrorist attacks are committed by migrants, Merkel pushed back against criticism of her unwavering commitment to mass migration, saying that Germany will fight the “hatred” of terrorism with “humanity” and “unity.”

“With the images of bombed-out Aleppo in Syria, it is important to remember once again how important and correct it was that our country has helped in the past year those who need our protection,” she said.

Acknowledging that Islamic terrorism is the biggest test for Germany, Merkel hinted at new security measures for the year ahead – but not at changes to her open-door mass migration policies.

Over one million unvetted migrants from the Middle East and Africa entered Germany alone at Merkel’s invitation, including potentially hundreds of Islamic State fighters and bringing with them the risk of the terror organisation weaponising migrants already in the country.

Asserting that “[the] state is doing everything to ensure its citizens’ security in freedom,” the chancellor said that in the midst of mourning for the dead and injured in these “difficult days,” Germans should seek “consolation” in each other.

Merkel closed her speech, which will be broadcast Saturday, by asserting that Germans need “openness” and “an open view of the world.” She stated she had “confidence” for 2017 – this New Year confidence an extension of her “Wir schaffen das” (“we can do this”) mantra.

Over the past two years, Germany has experienced its worst series of terror atrocities since the 1980s, with Islamist suicide bombings, shootings, axe attacks, and a truck rampage. The country has also experienced waves of mass sex attacks, social unrest, crime, and pressure on public services brought upon by the mass importation of peoples from the Islamic world.

Terror attacks in Würzburg, Ansbach, and Berlin in 2016, the year Merkel calls “a year of severe tests,” were committed by illegal migrants who, in Merkel’s New Year’s address for 2015, she referred to as Germany’s “chance of tomorrow.”

The anti-mass migration Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache has hit back against claims his party helps spread so-called “fake news” saying the government has created enough of it on its own.

The FPÖ party leader denounced the “Hoaxmap” initiative which claims to report alleged rumours spread primarily through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, and retaliated to claims his party is the largest promoters of rumours saying the government of Austria produces its own “fake news,” reportsKurier.

Strache asserted the government has used deceptive techniques over the past few years to hide the extent of crimes and criminality by manipulating statistics. He also stated many Austrians have been put in employment courses by the government in order to keep the appearance of the unemployment rate low. Despite these attempts, the unemployment rate has gone up significantly over the past year.

He also said the migrant background of many criminals has been covered up by the government, though earlier this month they admitted rapes committed by migrants had increased 133 per cent over the past year. According to Strache, the government had also, since 2014, counted prostitution, which is largely legal in Austria, and drug trafficking in economic reports to make the GDP numbers look better.

“More fake news is hardly possible politically,” said Strache.

The FPÖ also exposed the “fake news” by the government that the asylum seeker ceiling of 37,500 people had not yet been reached. According to a bill passed earlier in 2016, once the ceiling is reached the government must close the border to any new asylum seekers.

The populist party forced the Interior Ministry to reveal that the real number of migrants who crossed into Austria last year was over 120,000 with regions like Carinthia having 74,000 border crossings alone.

Strache called social media a “blessing” for democracy and said that it serves to correct mistakes made by the government or media. “If you want to stifle this public discourse, you do not understand democracy,” he said.

Not everyone agrees with the populist politician. German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the German government would crack down on “fake news” claiming the Russian government will try to influence the 2017 German federal election.

The German Interior Ministry has also declared that it will set up a new branch to combat fake news that some see as an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” in all but name. The project, labelled the “defence centre against disinformation,” is set to combat what the government deems to be false information ahead of the election which is set for the Autumn.

On December 12, the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May, gave a fulsome speech
to the annual Conservative Friends of Israel lunch. Before a roomful of
800 pro-Israel Conservative MPs and party supporters, she lavished
praise on the Jewish state. She praised Israel's achievements and
castigated its enemies. She said that Britain would be marking the
centenary of the Balfour declaration "with pride." She also stressed
that cooperation and friendship between Britain and Israel was not just
for the good of those two countries, but "for the good of the world."
For many of the people listening in the room, there were just two
discordant notes. The first was related to the focus on anti-Semitism in
May's speech. As she used the opportunity rightly to lambaste the
Labour party for its anti-Semitism problem, she extended the reach of
her own claims for herself. While boasting of her success as Home
Secretary in keeping out the prominent French anti-Semite Dieudonné and
finally deporting the Salafist cleric Abu Qatada al-Filistini back to
his native Jordan, she also used the opportunity to congratulate herself
for banning Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Pastor Terry Jones from
coming to the UK. "Islamophobia comes from the same wellspring of
hatred" as anti-Semitism, she explained.
This is a serious category error for a Prime Minister to make. It
puts critics of a religion, such as Geller and Spencer, on the same
plane as people wanted for terrorism (Qatada). It blurs the line between
speech and action, and mixes people who call for violence with those
who do not. The comparison also fails to follow the consequences of its
logic to its own illogical conclusion. The comparison fails to recognise
that anyone who objects to Islamic anti-Semitism is immediately known
as an "Islamophobe." Therefore, someone hoping to come to Britain would
have to accept being attacked by Muslim extremists for fear of being
banned from entering the UK. These are serious and basic
misunderstandings for a Prime Minister to propagate.
There was, however, a clear political sense to them. A Prime Minister in a country such as 21st
Century Britain might believe that he or she has to be exceptionally
careful not to appear to be criticising any one group of people or
praising another too highly. So for the time being in Britain, a moral
relativism continues to stagnate. If the Jewish community complains of
anti-Semitism, then you must criticise anti-Semitism. If the Muslim
community complains of "Islamophobia," then you must criticise
"Islamophobia." To make value judgements might be to commit an act of
political folly. Wise leaders in increasingly "diverse" societies must
therefore position themselves midway between all communities, neither
castigating nor over-praising, in order to keep as many people onside as
possible.
The same tactic brought the other discordant moment at the Prime
Minister's lunch -- the same tactic brought to the discussion of the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute. For the other discordant note in May's
speech came when she mentioned Israeli settlement building. It was
carefully placed in the speech, after a passage in which May
congratulated her own Department for International Development (DfID)
Minister, Priti Patel. In the days before the lunch, Patel had announced
that DfID would carry out an investigation to determine whether British
taxpayer money being sent to what May called "the Occupied Palestinian
Territories" was being used to fund salaries for Palestinians convicted
of terrorism offences against Israelis. Following this May said:

"When talking about global obligations, we must be honest
with our friends, like Israel, because that is what true friendship is
about. That is why we have been clear about building new, illegal
settlements: it is wrong; it is not conducive to peace; and it must
stop."

The comment was received in silence and May moved on.
But this comment fitted in closely with the strategy of her other
comment. For having lavished praise on Israel, a castigation apparently
seemed necessary. It is wrong, but hardly possible for a British Prime
Minister currently to do otherwise. If there are terrorists receiving
funds from British taxpayers thanks to the largesse of the UK
government, then this may -- after many years of campaigning by
anti-terrorism organisations -- finally be "investigated." However,
throughout any such investigation, the British government, whilst saying
that it remains committed to a peace deal that comes as a result of
direct negotiations between the two sides, has for years announced its
own preconditions for peace: a freeze on the building of what it calls
"settlements." They maintain this line despite the fact that settlements
have nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Before the
June 1967 Six Day War, there were no such things as "settlements."
Palestinians were trying to destroy and displace Israel anyhow -- in
1948, 1956, and 1967. The core problem is not, and never was,
"settlements," but the right of Israel (or any non-Muslim nation) to
exist inside any borders in that part of the world.
At the time of May's speech, these two issues seemed like minor
cavils to some and gained little notice. Only now, a fortnight later,
has the true duplicity of the speech been exposed. For now the world has
learned what diplomacy the British government was engaged in even as
May was making her speech.
At the same time as the Prime Minister was talking about "true
friendship" in front of friends of Israel, her government was conspiring
with the outgoing Obama administration to kick that friend in the back.
In the wake of the collapse of the Egyptian-sponsored initiative at the
UN, the British government was exposed as being one of the key players
intent on pushing through the anti-Israel UN Security Council Resolution
2334. British diplomats were revealed to have been behind the wording
and rallying of allies for the resolution.
The most obvious interpretation of this fact is simply a reflection
that friends do not kick friends in the back. Especially not in the
world's foremost international forum for kicking that particular friend.
But some people are putting a kinder interpretation
on the facts. The kindest to date is that the May government believes
that a sterner line on the issue of Israeli settlements would give the
British government more leverage with the Palestinians.
If that is so, then it seems that the May government will have to
learn abroad the same lesson that they must learn at home. Both will
come about because of the same strategic mistake: a reliance on the
short-term convenience of what must seem at first to be only convenient
little lies. The problem is that such little lies, when tested on the
great seas of domestic and international affairs, have a tendency to
come to grief with exceptional rapidity and ease.
Politicians are keen on taking stands. But if you take a stand that
is based on a lie, then that stand cannot succeed. If you try to oppose
anti-Semitism but pretend it is the same thing as "Islamophobia," then
the structure on which you have made your stand will totter and all your
aspirations will fail. If you try to make a stand for Israel while
simultaneously conniving at the UN to undermine Israel, then your
duplicity will be exposed and admiration for this and other stands will
falter. If you try to make a stand based on the idea that settlement
construction rather than the intransigence of the Palestinians to the
existence of a Jewish state is what is holding up a peace deal, then
facts will keep on intruding. They have before -- at home and abroad --
and they will again. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

Friday, December 30, 2016

BERLIN Christmas market attacker Anis Amri used eight different aliases to collect welfare benefits in order to finance his horrific terror attack on the Berlin Christmas market which left 12 people dead, reports have claimed. Despite being shot dead in Italy just days after the attack, the Tunisian refugee is now under investigation for fraud after conning German authorities into handing over cash to fund his terror exploits.
After travelling from Tunisia to Europe in 2011, he used up to eight different aliases and several different nationalities - at times even claiming to be from Egypt or Lebanon.Reports claim Amri carried several different false identity documents and used aliases to collect welfare in cities across Germany.
Authorities also found Amri had used the internet to try and find a way of contacting Daesh, as well as looking up instructions on how to build bombs.
Reports suggest Amri was known to German authorities months before he carried out the devastating attacks but they failed to act in time.Although considered a potential threat, he was labeled ‘unlikely’ to carry out a terror attack by counter-terrorism officers on at least two occasions.
Welfare fraud was key to funding terror attacks in Brussels in March and in Paris last year.
Terrorists collected around £45,000 in benefits which they used to pay for the brutal attacks in the major European cities.Meanwhile, Danish authorities came under fire recently after it emerged 36 Islamic State fighters continued to receive benefits for months after leaving the country to join other members of the brutal regime in Syria and Iraq.Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s employment minister, said: "It is totally unacceptable and a disgrace. It should be stopped.”
The terror attacks in Berlin caused police forces across Europe to bolster security efforts ahead of New Year’s celebrations. http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/748695/Berlin-Christmas-market-attacks-Anis-Amri-German-welfare-benefits

A CHRISTIAN woman was stabbed by an asylum seeker after he heard her reading from the bible.The 50-year-old woman was only saved by her winter coat when she was attacked with a knife in the accommodation in Timelkam in Voecklamarkt in Upper Austria.
Her alleged attacker is a 22-year-old man from Afghanistan who had taken offence to the fact that the woman had been invited by Christian residents of the property to discuss the bible.When he found out what she was doing, he stormed into the kitchen where the woman was standing and tried to plunge the knife into her upper body.
Luckily her thick winter coat protected her from serious injury, but she did injure her ear when she fell backwards from the force of the man's violent blows.When questioned by police, the man accepted he had overreacted but claimed he was suffering from 'personal problems'.He was ordered remanded in custody and taken to Wels Prison in Upper Austria. It is unclear if he has been charged yet.
The horror attack happened just days after a teenager was battered by a group of migrant men in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
And on Christmas day the migrant crisis issue was addressed by the Archbishop of Vienna when he said Austria could not cope with the huge numbers arriving. http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/748477/Austria-christian-woman-attacked-bible-stabbed-migrant-Voecklamarkt

ABOUT 200 migrants from Gambia brawled with a group of Moroccans at a refugee centre in Sigmaringen, Germany in the latest shocking violence to hit the nation.The Gambians claimed they felt provoked by Moroccans who were constantly drunk and trying to start fights.
Firefighters were called to deal with an alarm that had gone off but they were left facing hundreds of aggressive people who were asked to leave their rooms by security forces.
Police dogs and officers eventually managed to calm the situation down.One of the men behind the mass brawl was arrested by police and was admitted to a hospital due to psychological symptoms.
Two of the chief ringleaders, aged 20 and 26, on the Moroccan side were taken in judicial custody for a few hours.
Since the migrant crisis began, Germany has accepted more than one million migrants and Angela Merkel faces a backlash from her country.
Mrs Merkel has been blamed for the attacks Germany has suffered this year.
In December an Islamist terrorist killed 12 shoppers at a Christmas market in Berlin.
When it happened, she told the German public: “I know that it would be particularly hard to bear for all of us if it was confirmed that a person committed this crime who asked for protection and asylum in Germany.
Germany has increased security this year for New Years Eve as to avoid a repeat of the sex attacks in Cologne last year when 1,000 migrants went on a rampage. The Gambians claimed they felt provoked by Moroccans who were constantly drunk and trying to start fights.
Firefighters were called to deal with an alarm that had gone off but they were left facing hundreds of aggressive people who were asked to leave their rooms by security forces.
Police dogs and officers eventually managed to calm the situation down.One of the men behind the mass brawl was arrested by police and was admitted to a hospital due to psychological symptoms.
Two of the chief ringleaders, aged 20 and 26, on the Moroccan side were taken in judicial custody for a few hours.
Since the migrant crisis began, Germany has accepted more than one million migrants and Angela Merkel faces a backlash from her country. Mrs Merkel has been blamed for the attacks Germany has suffered this year.In December an Islamist terrorist killed 12 shoppers at a Christmas market in Berlin.
When it happened, she told the German public: “I know that it would be particularly hard to bear for all of us if it was confirmed that a person committed this crime who asked for protection and asylum in Germany.
Germany has increased security this year for New Years Eve as to avoid a repeat of the sex attacks in Cologne last year when 1,000 migrants went on a rampage. http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/748204/Germany-migrants-fight-refugee-centre-sigmaringen

Berlin Christmas Market attacker Anis Amri broke asylum rules, committed benefit fraud, and was issued immigration documents under a false name – but the head of Germany’s asylum agency denies any in-house negligence.

“Amri has not slipped through the cracks of BAMF,” assertedFrank-Jürgen Weise, the head of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. However, German media reports the jihadist disobeyed almost all of the immigration authority’s rules and continued to do so even after BAMF and intelligence services met to discuss the Tunisian months before Amri ploughed a truck through a busy Christmas market killing 12 and injuring over 50.

Der Spiegelreports that Amri had been living in Berlin since February 2016, but registered for asylum in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) in April, despite asylum rules stating that applicants remain in the district in which they claim asylum for at least three months during processing.

Amri was also being investigated in Berlin for obtaining benefits fraudulently under the name “Ahmad Zaghoul,” and for punching a guard.Amri’s application for asylum was rejected as his claims of persecution were determined “manifestly unfounded,” in part as his assumed identity – as an Egyptian – was proven false. BAMF’s own interpreter even noted Amri did not have an Egyptian accent at all.

However, the Tunisian was granted a “certificate of toleration” or “temporary suspension of deportation” – an immigration status that makes deportation impossible on grounds of illness, missing documentation, or in the case of Amri, because the claimant’s home country will not or cannot confirm his identity.

Papers from Tunisia that would have allowed for his deportation were received on Wednesday 21 December – two days after his deadly attack.

The Foreigners’ Office in Kleve then issued a certificate of toleration – for Ahmed Almasri.“We are still in the middle of the work-up and we have to look at all the details carefully, only then can we make a final evaluation,” said BAMF president Weise, adding, “The case of Amri is an occasion to re-examine some processes in our house.”

MP for Berlin and member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that illegal migrants like Amri play the German asylum system and should not be in the country in the first place.

Die Zeitreports that as of the end of this year BAMF estimates nearly 450,000 asylum applications are still pending review. BAMF also currently has 200,000 foreigners, including failed asylum seekers, holding a certificate of toleration.

The Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has proposed a new policy for migrants crossing the Mediterranean: turn the boats around and send them back to Africa.

The CSU, under the leadership of Horst Seehofer, continues to push away from the migrant policies of their coalition allies the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Chancellor Merkel. A new report, written largely in response to the Berlin Christmas Market massacre which was carried out by a Tunisian asylum seeker, calls for stricter asylum and migrant policies,.

Among the proposals are the ability to send rescued boats in the Mediterranean back to Africa, reportsTagesschau.

The report, entitled “Security for our Freedom” contains a list of demands by the party which has become increasingly hard line on mass migration over the course of the past year. The CSU wants to see more protection for police officers, expansion of video surveillance, and stricter policies for the deportation of migrants who are considered vulnerable.

The largest and most controversial demand is to send rescued boats back to their countries of origin in Africa rather than the current policy which is to bring them to Italy or Greece. Italy has seen a record number of migrants arrive across the sea this year and a record number dying during the journey.

The CSU has said that Germany and the European Union (EU) need to forge better ties with North African countries in order to get them to take back their nationals and resettle them in Africa.

The idea to process legitimate refugees in North Africa is not new. Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and former Freedom Party (FPÖ) presidential candidate Norbert Hofer have both expressed a desire to follow in the footsteps of Australia who turn back boats and hold migrants on islands off the coast of the country.

Foreign Minister Kurz has taken the policy further this week, saying that there should be real consequences for countries that refuse to take back their nationals. Germany, in particular, has faced opposition from North African countries who make specific and costly demands to take back their citizens.

Kurz has said that uncooperative African countries should be sanctioned for not accepting the return of migrants and that the EU should limit the amount of foreign aid sent to them. “Many of the countries have no interest in taking back their citizens,” he said.

“If we can not control whoever immigrates into the EU and who lives here, that is a security risk,” Kurz remarked and added, “I warned a year and a half ago that the refugee routes can also be used by terrorists, which unfortunately proved to be right.”

MIGRANTS kicked a one-year-old baby on a bus then attacked paramedics with BELTS as they tried to treat the infant.
The shocking attack happened at approximately 9pm on Sunday night in Augsburg, one of Germany’s oldest cities.
Residents were being evacuated following the discovery of a bomb from
the Second World War and some had boarded a replacement night bus when a
fight broke out.
Several Syrian migrants erupted with anger because of a pram taking up space on the bus.
Migrants hurled abuse at other passengers before a fight broke out,
with four of the Syrian men using the handles on the bus to hoist
themselves up and attack women and old people to try and drag them into
the fighting, according to an eyewitness.
The migrants paid no attention to anyone in their way, at one point kicking a one-year-old in the face.
Paramedics were called and arrived on the scene to help the injured
but the men began attacking them with belts – not letting up until the
police were called….

An English woman has claimed she was abducted when she was just 15, and held captive by a taxi driver who forced her to wear a head scarf, raped her every day for 13 years, and sold four children he fathered with her.

Anna Ruston – not her real name – made the revelations in a new book published this Thursday, Secret Slave, which she wrote as part of her therapy. Ms. Ruston, from near Birmingham, is now aged 44 and has been free for 16 years.

According to the Birmingham Mail, she writes of how she lived with her abuser’s brothers, their wives, children and his mother –all of whom turned a blind eye, even as she was forced into prostitution in their home.

After her parents and grandparents died when she was 15, taxi driver “Malic” lured her to his house. He knew Ms. Ruston was vulnerable, and no one would notice if she disappeared.

“They gave me milky tea and chapattis and even when Malik said I should stay the night I thought nothing of it, I assumed he would take me home in the morning”, she said.

However that night Malik came into her room and branded her a “filthy white sl*t” who he would “make his own”. The door was locked and her decade of enslavement and torture began.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, she explained how she was kept lock up for so long: “There were always three or four people with me, so I couldn’t see an escape. I never answered the doctors I just nodded or shook my head.

“I just wish that if someone had left the room then I could have said to the doctor: ‘Look, I need help, I’m being held, I need to get out’, but they never left the room. If I went to the toilet then they were outside the door.”

She also said in the book that she was “let down” by authorities and that people were afraid to help her because they could be accused of racism and discrimination.

“Malik dressed me in his culture’s clothes, dyed my hair black, made me wear a scarf and keep my head down”, she added.

“When he spoke for me they thought it was a cultural thing. And I think people are scared to be accused of discrimination.”

Describing her ordeal, she told the Birmingham Mail: “I can still see that bedroom, the corner where I would rock in pain. Although after a while I stopped feeling pain, I think my body shut down.

“And I can smell it – the can I used as a toilet, the garlic he reeked of. I got to the point where I didn’t know what life was.”

As Germany’s fourth city prepares to field a massive police deployment over the New Year’s weekend following the migrant rape crisis of 2015, it is revealed many of those hired to assist the police were newly arrived migrants themselves.

While just 80 on-duty police were struggling to deal with hundreds of violent migrants terrorising party-goers in central Cologne, they found themselves being backed up by untrained migrants hired as security officers. A new report states those migrant helpers had been directly recruited from immigration camps and their only qualifications were owning warm clothes and having a “mediocre” command of the German language.

Germany’s Weltreports 59 new arrivals were hired to work security for the city to supplement the small number of police. The guards were tasked with mundane public protection roles like controlling the flow of revelers celebrating New Year’s Eve across the city bridges, but many disappeared during their shifts and one was found too drunk to work.

The men recruited were predominantly new arrivals from places including North Africa, Syria, and Afghanistan. While the migrant watchmen were paid under the national minimum wage at €5 an hour, the Cologne government was invoiced €15 an hour by the staffing agency.

The city has defended its use of the company, remarking in the past their relationship with them had been “basically unproblematic”.

The revelation comes as the city gears up for what may be one of its largest police operations ever, and as the chief of the city force has vowed all citizens going into the city to celebrate this coming weekend will be totally safe. Police are to erect a tall fence around the central station and Cathedral area with checkpoints controlling those who enter and leave.

Police are also expected to use floodlights in this “protection zone” and deploy helicopters. Approximately 1,500 police officers will be on patrol, compared to 80 in 2015 when officers found themselves unable to control the sudden surge in crime around the Cathedral square on New Year’s Eve.

Some 1,300 individuals became victims of robbery, sexual assault, and even rape. While police attempted to arrest troublemakers early in the night, a shortage of officers, patrol cars, and even available prison cells meant many were immediately released back on the street.

She was sitting there quietly in the middle of the classroom -- a
Swedish Muslim all dressed in black with a white powdered face. I was
lecturing on John Stuart Mill at Sweden's University West. What did I
say? I said that while religion may not be true, it still gives people a
sense of belonging and trust, and liberal society cannot give you that.
The liberal soup is thin, and most of us want something richer, some
kind of political main-course goulash. When people say that liberal
society is empty, they actually mean this: I cannot give my life any
purpose, so can someone kindly do it for me? Please hand me some
grandiose message to live by because I cannot figure out anything on my
own. Emptiness? Well, that could be another word for limitless
opportunities.
Two days later, the Muslim student sent me an email. She accused me
of not being "neutral". She wrote that I had called religious people
"pathetic". I had not. She accused me of defaming Islam, herself as a
woman and as an individual student.
As for Islam, I had never mentioned it, and as for her, I had never
seen her before. Possibly in her vanity, she seemed to think the lecture
was about her; in fact, it was about John Stuart Mill. She said (and
this shook me a bit) that she would keep me "under surveillance"; she
signed off with: "The student dressed in her pride". Too bad she could
not find something else about which to be proud. She was proud of her
submission, not of her achievements. If you cannot give your life
meaning, perhaps somebody will chip in and do it for you.
Other than that, her email was full of post-modern nonsense such as
science as a "belief" just like religion. In fact, science is doubt
based on knowledge, while religion is certainty based on faith. We had
given her the tools of postmodernism, and here she was trashing the
fabric of Western society. Would she, I wondered, also "deconstruct" the
Koran?
But I was not bothered by her email, really. Students have the right
to say all kinds of things, perhaps even to write inappropriate emails
to their professors. It is, someone said, a human right not to "get it".
All it takes is to talk. If a student fails to understand the basic
principles of a university -- free inquiry, the need to question our
views -- the university will introduce the student to them. So I did not
reply, but calmly awaited the next step by my department.
A few days later, an email requesting a meeting was sent out. But she
never got it. I did. How odd, I thought, but I went there and, in front
of a wide-eyed administrator, explained the rise of the modern
university as a realm of free discussion, unhampered by the power of the
state and the church; and spoke about the principles of free speech,
and cited Karl Popper, Mill, George Orwell, Voltaire, and others on the
way. She looked happy.
A few days later came another email. Now I was called in for
consultations with Head of the Department and the Head Administrator.
"Look", I told them, "this is a university. Do you know what that
means?" They said they did. "Do you know why I am here?" I gave them the
answer. "For lecturing on John Stuart Mill."
"Ten years ago," I went on, "I wrote an article about a performance of Ideomeneo -- a Mozart opera that was cancelled in Berlin because it might
offend Muslim sensibilities. The title of the article was 'The
Enlightenment may end up as a historical paranthesis.' Do you know what
the Enlightenment is about?"
I looked at them and they looked back at me.
"We just want you to explain what happened," they said. "I just did,"
I said. "I lectured on Mill. Of course, if you are a religious fanatic,
you must be horrified of Mill. If not, what are you doing at a university? I have to give her that."
"She is just a curious student," they said. They were nodding, one to
the other. "She studied law, and is obviously interested in testing a
case like this, isn't she?" they said. "She is a gifted student, a very
gifted student." Two educated women were mistaking an assault against
the modern world for reverence toward a student they thought was
"independent." It was a heart-breaking scene.
"Have you talked to her?", I asked them.
"Well, no, we haven't."
"Perhaps you should," I said. "You could talk to her about the university, and about freedom of expression."
Then things got interesting. I got an email from a "Health
Coordinator". My health? Was something wrong with it? I thought this was
an issue about differences of opinions. I thought about "mental
corrections" in the Soviet Union, Arthur Koestler and George Orwell.
The health-coordinator turned out to be hands-on. He said his job was "to put an end to the whole thing."
"And the woman," I asked?
"She never showed up." he said.
"She did not?"
"No."
"Too bad," I said. "She throws out accusations and threats, and then
refuses to talk. Is that a good approach if you want to learn new
things?" He gave me a faint smile, and I thought we agreed on something.
What is the point of going to university anyway? If you only want
your views confirmed, then go to a Koran school. Why does this young
woman attend a university, if we say things she cannot stand? She does
it because she wants us to change.
Three? Five? I have lost count of how many more times I was summoned.
What I do know is that I sent hundreds of letters during my "case".
Eventually, after interminable months, after lawyers and God knows who
had "thoroughly investigated Mill, me and it," I was "acquitted". My
lecture on Mill had, the "authorities" decided, "not been
discriminatory" after all. What a surprise. But there was a serious side
to it. A student pressed button D for Discrimination, and an academic
was thrown into a pit of bureaucracy. The total cost? Do not even ask.
"Who ever will lecture on Mill when things like this can happen?" I
asked them. "Do you understand the implications of bending over
backwards to the enemies of an open society?"
Finally, case was closed. Or so I thought. Recently, I was told the student had taken the case to the Discrimination Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen)
-- the highest recourse in Sweden for cases such as this. A female
student bids farewell to hundreds of years of the battle for women's
rights -- suffragettes and feminist icons, socialists and liberals
marching, conveying, demonstrating -- and she does it, notably, out of her own free will. She had exercised her freedom only to give it up. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9600/sweden-education

ANTI-MIGRANT protesters stormed Cologne's train station and main square in an open act of defiance after police try to ban the demonstration.Members of the far right NDP group planned to take to Cologne's main square, the scene of the depraved New Year sex attacks, to voice their oposition to Angela Merkel's controversial open door migration policy – but police banned the event amid safety concerns.
Undeterred, dozens of protesters scaled Cologne's train station, unveiling nationalist banners and chanting anti-mass immigration slogans.
In a well-orchestrated and pre-planned move, the NDP supporters clamberd onto the station's roof and revealed their anti-migrant banner.Police earlier cancelled the event, citing "a serious security threat, which cannot be averted otherwise".
The original protest was supposed to take place in the square itself, facing the cathedral that was the backdrop to the sickenig volume of sexual assaults committed against hundreds of women.According to Germany's Die Welt news outlet, 267 investigations against 333 suspects were launched in the wake of New Year's Eve's carnage.
However, half of the proceedings have been dropped by prosecutors and only 30 people have been convicted.The vast majority of those arested in connection with the assailts were refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.The far right protest was designed to "show solidarity with the women" who suffered that night and to ensure the main square does not become "a no go zone". http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/748010/Germany-Cologne-sex-attack-New-Year-migrant-asylum-seeker-protest-NDP-far-right

In Sweden, there are a number of Muslim organizations that together constitute what is known as "Muslim civil society" (Muslimska civilsamhället).
What is important, when discussing Muslim civil society in Sweden, is
their political influence, their ideology and their structure.

IFIS

One of the most important organizations in Sweden's Muslim civil society is the Islamic Association of Sweden (Islamiska Förbundet i Sverige -- IFIS), established in 1981. Some of the goals of IFIS, which you can read about on their website,
are to "influence and form opinions on issues that concern the Muslim
group and its interests in Sweden" and "increase participation,
influence and representation of Muslims in public institutions and
bodies". In other words, IFIS works as a lobby organization for Muslims
in Sweden.
It is a lobby organization that has been successful.
Former IFIS chairman Abdirizak Waberi represented the second largest
party, the Moderate Party, in parliament between 2010 and 2014, when
this party was in government. When Waberi sat in parliament, he was a
member of the defense committee, which decides the policies for the
Swedish Armed Forces.
Waberi's time in parliament was a remarkable experience for many
Swedes. In several interviews before 2010, Waberi said he believed in a
literal interpretation of the Koran. In an interview from 2006, he supported the idea that men could have four wives. In another interview
from 2009, he said that he does not shake the hand of a woman; that men
and women should not dance with each other, and that he would rather
live in a country with Islamic sharia law. After these interviews,
clearly revealing that Waberi is an Islamist, and that he got to
represent Sweden's second-largest party in parliament, apparently
without Swedish media or anyone else providing scrutiny over his past
statements.
Omar Mustafa, who took over as chairman of IFIS in 2011, after
Waberi, was elected to the leadership of the Swedish Social Democratic
Party (SAP) in April 2013. Mustafa's election into the leadership of
Sweden's largest party triggered a reaction in which the media actually
started to write about IFIS operations. The media reported
that shortly before Mustafa was elected to the SAP leadership, IFIS had
organized a conference in Stockholm, where it had invited speakers with
anti-Semitic views. When the media began to examine IFIS's operations
more closely, Omar Mustafa was forced to resign from the Social
Democratic leadership.
Despite the scandal around Omar Mustafa, IFIS continues to have a
close relationship with both the largest party, the Social Democrats and
the second largest party, the Moderate Party.

Mehmet Kaplan and "Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice"

Mehmet Kaplan is an example of how a person with origins in Muslim
civil society can climb up into the Swedish government. Kaplan was
secretary of the Swedish Young Muslims (Sveriges Unga Muslimer
-- SUM) between the years of 1996-2000. Then he became the chairman of
this organization, until 2002. Between 2005 and 2006, Kaplan was the
press secretary for the Muslim Council of Sweden (Sveriges Muslimska Råd). In 2008, Kaplan founded the organization Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice (Svenska Muslimer för Fred och Rättvisa -- SMFR).
Kaplan was a member of the Green Party's leadership between 2003 and
2011. He represented the Green Party in parliament between 2006 and
2014. Between 2014 and 2016, Kaplan was Sweden's Minister of Housing.
After "alternative" media outlets in Sweden started writing about
Kaplan's dealings with various kinds of extremists, the Swedish
mainstream media started to examine Kaplan. In 2014, Kaplan had already
been criticized for having compared
the Swedish jihadists who travel to Syria to join groups such as ISIS,
with the Swedes who had gone to Finland during WWII to defend Finland
from the Soviet military aggression.
When the media began to examine Kaplan, it emerged
that in the summer of 2015, he had participated at a dinner where the
leader of the fascist Turkish organization, the Grey Wolves, was in
attendance. The media also found that Kaplan for several years had held meeting with the Islamist organization, Milli Görüs. It then emerged that Kaplan in 2009 compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians with the Nazis' treatment of Jews.

Kaplan also sat
for several years on the board of an organization called Charter 2008,
which defends dangerous jihadists and criticizes the war against
terrorism.
When Mehmet Kaplan founded Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice (SMFR) in 2008, its "vision statement" stated:

"If you want to participate and influence the development
of society, it is inevitable to become politically involved. Everything
that is connected to power is ultimately linked to politics. Without
power, it is not possible to create change. As an individual,
organization and society, active players constantly seek power to get
through various forms of changes, push through solutions to various
societal problems, as well as the ability to express themselves about,
as well as define, various societal challenges. One of SMFR's goal is to
gain power to change the world for the better."

This "better" world is an Islamic world. In the same "vision statement", SMFR writes:

"Islam should be the starting point for SMFR's
operations. It is on the basis of Islam where the main inspiration,
commitment, drive, motivation, guidance and values will come from."

SMFR embodies its goal by writing in its program that Islam should be
a natural part of Europe's cultural heritage. SMFR wants to work for a
Swedish Muslim culture. In other words, SMFR works for the Islamization
of Europe and Sweden.
SMFR is actively trying to realize their vision. The organization's
spokesperson and secretary-general, Yasri Khan, was nominated for the
Green Party leadership and would certainly have been elected into the
leadership, before a journalist in April 2016 revealed that Yasri Khan did not shake hands with women.
Members of the Green Party, which sits in the government of Sweden,
apparently knew Yasri Khan refused to shake hands with women, and yet
they were helping to elect him into the party leadership. The Green
Party spokesman and Sweden's Minister for Education, Gustav Fridolin, told the media:

"I knew about it. I had not realized how offensive some women think that it can be."

Fridolin's former press secretary is a woman named
Anwahr Athahb. Only two years before Athahb became Fridolin's press
secretary, she had been elected to the vice-chairmanship of SMFR. Before
that, she was
the secretary of the organization. In 2014, Athahb was one of the Green
Party's leading candidates for the European Parliament. Her campaign-slogan was "The EU needs more Muslim women in Parliament".
Today, Athahb works at an Arabic talk show on Sveriges Radio, Sweden's national public taxpayer-funded radio broadcaster.
Muslim civil society's political influence is great, reaches all the
way up to the government, and that it exists in almost all major parties
in Sweden.
Because there are so many examples of Muslim civil society's
political influence, it is not possible to include all examples in this
article. But a final example may clarify how strong this influence is.
Already in 1999, the Muslim Council of Sweden (SMR) signed an agreement with Sweden's Social Democrat party that:

"In the coming term, Muslims' participation in social
democracy will evolve so that: in 2002 there should be among social
democratic elected representatives Muslims in 15 municipal lists, 5
county lists and on the parliamentary lists in at least five counties."

There are few lobbying organizations that can get the largest party
in Sweden to sign an agreement with such clear and concrete promises.

Ideology

The Islamic Association of Sweden (IFIS) writes on their website that they are members of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE). There are strong links between FIOE and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Besides IFIS's links to the Muslim Brotherhood through FIOE, IFIS
often shows sympathy and support for the Muslim Brotherhood. In August
2013, IFIS held
demonstrations in Stockholm in support of Egypt's former Islamist
President Mohamed Morsi, who had been deposed. The entire Muslim civil
society in Sweden criticized the military coup against Morsi. Yet, the
same Muslim civil society never criticizes the Islamist regimes in Iran
and Saudi Arabia. When the United Arab Emirates decided to list the
Muslim Brotherhood and all branches of the movement as terrorists, they
also listed
IFIS as terrorists, because the authorities in the UAE assessed that
this organization in Sweden was part of the international network of the
Muslim Brotherhood.
When a debate started in 2014 on making it illegal for Swedish
citizens to travel to other countries to participate in jihad, the
Muslim Human Rights Committee (Muslimska Mänskliga Rättighetskommittén), one of the organizations within Swedish Muslim civil society, claimed that such a law would be racist. Furthermore, they argued that people who fought in jihad abroad were not even a threat against Sweden.
So when it comes to ideology, it seems clear that Muslim civil
society in Sweden has an ideological direction that is close to the
Muslim Brotherhood's ideology, while they criticize the laws and
measures that prevent Islamic terrorism.

Structure

To understand the structure of Muslim civil society in Sweden, we
need to look at Kapellgränd 10, in Stockholm, the official address for
at least 15 different Muslim organizations, including the Stockholm
Mosque. Muslim organizations such as IFIS, the European Muslim Rights
Council, the Forum for Young Muslims, Sweden's Imam Council, the Ibn
Rushd Educational Association and the Swedish Muslim Scouts, use this
same address for their organizations. The bulk of Muslim civil society
in Sweden is controlled from Kapellgränd 10. Thus, the structure of
Muslim civil society appears quite centralized.
The centralization of Muslim civil society can also be seen in that a
few people sit in the leading positions of different Muslim
organizations. If, for example, you take the organization, Ibn Rushd,
which is an Islamic educational association in Sweden, its chairman is
Helena Hummasten, who was chairman of the Muslim Council of Sweden until
2014. The principal of Ibn Rushd is Omar Mustafa, who was chairman of IFIS until 2016. The development manager of Ibn Rushd is Mustafa Tumturk, who is also a board member of the Muslim Council of Sweden. Mohammed Fateh Atia, who is responsible for digital development in Ibn Rushd, has also been vice-chairman
of the Swedish Young Muslims (SUM). These are just a few examples of
how a handful of people have strategic roles in several organizations in
Sweden's Muslim civil society.

Conclusions

Conclusions that can be drawn about Muslim civil society in Sweden include:

Muslim civil society has significant influence in almost all major Swedish political parties.

Muslim civil society's influence is strong enough that one of their representatives was a government minister.

Muslim civil society in Sweden is an Islamist movement with organizational and ideological links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Muslim civil society consists, on paper, of several organizations
but in practice, it operates as a single organization in which a few
people have the leading roles.

We have been talking mostly about Islamism as something foreign, not
among us in the Western world. But the influence of Islamists, or
extremist Muslims, in a Western country such as Sweden is large; there
have been Islamists in the Swedish government and parliament, without
the media or establishment even reacting.
The greatest threat from Islamism comes not from the suicide bombers
who carry out spectacular attacks, but from Islamists quietly
infiltrating our democratic institutions and normalizing their ideas
among us. It is a threat that must be recognized and addressed.

Nima Gholam Ali Pour is a member of the board of
education in the Swedish city of Malmö and is engaged in several Swedish
think tanks concerned with the Middle East. He is also editor for the
social conservative website Situation Malmö. Gholam Ali Pour is the
author of the Swedish book "Därför är mångkultur förtryck"("Why multiculturalism is oppression").

Who is Mohammed Usman Rana? He's a 31-year-old Norwegian doctor and
newspaper columnist who first appeared on my radar in 2007 when, as an
undergraduate at the University of Oslo, he took part in a debate about
Muslim attitudes toward gay people. Rana, who at the time was head of
UiO's Muslim Student Association, said that he personally opposed
executing gays, but refused to criticize countries that punish
homosexuality with death. Pressed further on the issue by his opponents,
Rana pulled a slick switcheroo, charging that it was not he but they
who were displaying intolerance. How dare they sit in judgment of
Islamic law?
Did Rana's failure to condemn the execution of
gay people make him an outcast? Of course not – we're talking about
Scandinavia here, after all. Only a few months after the above-mentioned
debate, he wrote an op-ed for Aftenposten, Norway's newspaper
of record, in which he picked up where he'd left off. Norwegians, he
complained in the piece, are “secular extremists” who are insufficiently
respectful of orthodox Islam, who hope for an “Islamic reformation”
that would in fact mutilate the religion, and who prefer to hear from
secular Muslims and ex-Muslims (think Ayaan Hirsi Ali) than from genuine
believers such as himself.
Rana's essay won an award from Aftenposten –
a victory that catapulted him into the top ranks of the nation's
commentariat and made him, in the words of author Ole Asbjørn Ness, “Aftenposten's
deadly serious house Islamist.” Who, by the way, chose to give Rana the
award? A fellow by the name of Knut Olav Åmås, who at the time was an
editor of Aftenposten and who happens to be openly gay. Yes,
that's right: a gay editor gave a major career boost to a writer who
refused to criticize the death penalty for gay people. Welcome to
Norway.
This year saw another milestone for Rana: his first book. It was published by one of Norway's oldest and most distinguished houses, Aschehoug, and it was launched at a splashy event
hosted by Fritt Ord, a free-speech foundation, where Rana was given an
oddly jocund introduction by Fritt Ord's CEO, none other than the
aforementioned Knut Olav Åmås. Also on hand to praise Rana were Trine
Skei Grande, head of the Norwegian Liberal Party (who took the
opportunity to slam Fox News for its purported Islamophobia), and Hanne
Skartveit, political editor of Norway's largest newspaper, VG. (Interestingly,
while Fritt Ord was given a media lashing in 2013 for supporting a book
project by Islam critic Peder Are Nøstvold Jensen, aka “Fjordman,”
nobody publicly criticized Fritt Ord's support for Rana.).

What is Rana's book about? Entitled Norwegian Islam: How to Love Norway and the Koran at the Same Time, it
aims to substantiate a demonstrably absurd proposition: namely, that
there's no conflict whatsoever between being a devout traditional Muslim
and a responsible, patriotic citizen of Norway or any other Western
democracy. As his talk at the Fritt Ord event made clear, Rana's way of
resolving the tension between Islamic and democratic values is to
insist, quite simply, that the latter make room for the former: to do
otherwise would be “not only unrealistic, but also deeply illiberal and
unreasonable.” It's the same argument he used years ago at that student
debate: not to tolerate Islam's extreme illiberality would be illiberal.
Rana actually pointed to the tolerance of Amish communities in the U.S.
as an example for Europe to follow in its treatment of Muslims, dancing
around the minor detail that the Amish don't live on welfare, don't
beat up Jews and gays, don't commit honor killings or gang rapes, and
don't drive trucks into crowds of non-Amish men, women, and children.
Ness, reviewing Norwegian Islam in Finansavisen, called it “the year's funniest book” – the humor, of course, being entirely unintentional.
Throughout his work, Rana represents himself as a moderate alternative
to extremism and violence. But though he's well-spoken, temperate, and
presentable and dresses in Western garb, Rana is no moderate.
Ideologically, there's little sunshine between him and the “extremists”;
the main thing that distinguishes the one from the other is their
choice of weapons. Indeed, compared to the most famous Muslim in Norway,
terrorist Mullah Krekar, Rana is probably the more dangerous – not just
because the pen is mightier than the sword, but because every time
Europe is hit by a jihadist atrocity, the continent's elites rush to
hoist characters like Rana on their shoulders, celebrating them as
bridge-builders, voices of hope, embodiments of the “real,” peaceful
Islam that the terrorists have “hijacked.” What those elites don't grasp
is that Rana is every bit as much of a jihadist – in his case, a
stealth jihadist – as those monsters who plowed trucks into crowds in
Berlin and Nice. They also serve who only sit and write.
Yes,
when he discusses European Islam, Rana likes to throw around the word
“interpretation.” But he's not really talking about any meaningful
adjustments in dogma. (Interestingly, he never speaks of “re-interpretation.”)
He's certainly not one of those people, like Irshad Manji, who want to
“modernize” Islam by giving it a big theological overhaul. He has
absolutely no wiggle room – zero – when it comes to the crucial
questions of (a) the Koran's divine origin and absolute inerrancy and
(b) the proposition that Muhammed was the perfect man. He approves of
hijab, and is OK with niqab. While still claiming to oppose the death
penalty for gays, he also maintains
that when you tolerate homosexuality you “water down Islam” and strip
Islam of its “credibility” – so make of that what you will. Routinely,
he's responded to events like the Danish cartoon controversy by smoothly
shifting the topic from free speech to “responsible speech.” He locates
the roots of Islamic terror not in the Koran but in American wars,
European imperialism, and Israeli oppression of Palestinians. He says
that the chief impediment to Islamic assimilation isn't Islam but
Islamophobia – and (as we've seen) smears as Islamophobes all those who
dare to tell the truth about Islamic belief and culture. Simply put,
he's a cynical whitewasher of Islam – a wolf in sheep's clothing,
determined to do his part to erode liberty and normalize sharia in the
West, thereby helping to turn one country after another into a
theocracy.
Most recently, Rana popped up in Aftenposten on December 26 with an op-ed
about Donald Trump. In it, Rana recalled with admiration that after
9/11, George W. Bush high-tailed it to a mosque to proclaim that “Islam
is peace.” Rana argued that the “respect” shown to Islam by both Bush
and his successor, Barack Obama, is one of the reasons why American
Muslims are such patriots (!). But, he warned, that may change under
Trump, who “demonizes” Islam and whose incoming administration is packed
with Muslim-haters – notably Steve Bannon, whose website, Breitbart, he
described as “a platform for anti-Semitism and white nationalism” and
as having published “known Islamophobes such as Robert Spencer, Pamela
Geller, and Frank Gaffney.” Rana painted a nightmare picture of a
totalitarian Trump-run America defined by anti-Muslim legislation,
anti-Muslim hate crime, and anti-Muslim terrorism. (Needless to say,
Rana dropped the terrorist attacks in Boston, San Bernardino, Orlando,
etc., etc., down the memory hole.) One thing is clear from Rana's piece:
Trump has him scared. And with good reason. Because Trump has his
number – and Islam's number. Trump, unlike Trine Skei Grande and
countless other feckless European politicians, doesn't show up for talks
by the likes of Rana and pat them on the head while murmuring sweet
nothings about diversity and multiculturalism; he recognizes guys like
Rana as existential threats to Western freedom, and he means to do
something about them. And Rana's smart enough to know it. http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265294/norwegian-islam-bruce-bawer

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

German prosecutors said Wednesday that they have detained a Tunisian man they think may have been involved in last week’s truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

The 40-year-old, who wasn’t identified, was detained in Berlin during a search of his home and business, federal prosecutors said.

The man’s telephone number was saved in the cellphone of Anis Amri, a fellow Tunisian believed to have driven a truck into the market on Dec. 19. Amri, 24, was killed in a shootout with Italian police in a suburb of Milan early Friday.

Of the new suspect, prosecutors said in a statement that “further investigations indicate that he may have been involved in the attack.”

Twelve people died and dozens more were injured in the truck attack. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility.

Prosecutors have until Thursday evening to determine whether the case against the 40-year-old is strong enough for them to seek a formal arrest warrant. That would allow them to keep him in custody pending possible charges.

Investigators are trying to determine whether Amri had a support network in planning and carrying out the attack, and in fleeing Berlin. They’re also trying to piece together the route he took from Berlin to Milan.

Italian police have said Amri traveled through France, and French authorities said on Tuesday that he made a stop in the eastern French city of Lyon.

On Wednesday, Dutch authorities said it appeared Amri first had fled through the Netherlands, Germany’s western neighbor.

Jirko Patist, a spokesman for the Dutch national prosecutor’s office, said “highly likely” that Amri had been in Nijmegen, in the eastern Netherlands, during his journey from Berlin to Milan.

Camera images recovered in Nijmagen “found someone we think, rather of whom we say it is highly likely,” is the same person appearing in photos from Lyon in France, Patist told Netherlands public broadcaster NOS.

Patist added that there was no reason to think the suspect was accompanied by anyone person while in the Netherlands.

A SIM card found on the fugitive after he was shot led authorities to the Netherlands.

“We can see that the SIM cards like this have been distributed in several locations in the Netherlands,” he said.

Amri had no phone with him in Milan, only the loose SIM card.

According to Italian police, Amri also had a pocket knife and a few hundred euros in cash in a backpack that he was carrying when officers on a routine patrol stopped him to ask for identification in the Milan suburb of Sesto San Giovanni on Friday.

He also carried a .22 pistol that he then used to shoot a police officer, hitting him in the shoulder.

The Italian investigator said the weapon appeared to be the same one used in Germany to kill the Polish driver of the truck that was commandeered for the Christmas market attack, but that final ballistic tests were still being carried out.

The body of the Polish driver, Lukasz Urban, was returned to Poland on Tuesday, said Aldoma Lema, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in the Polish city of Szczecin.

There has been speculation over whether Urban still was alive at the time of the attack and struggled with Amri. His body was found in the truck’s cab.

German daily Bild reported Tuesday, without citing sources, that autopsy results showed Urban was shot in the head several hours before the attack and would have been dead or unconscious by that time.

Lema said she could not give the time of his death. Another autopsy was performed in Poland on Wednesday and preliminary findings won’t be known for three weeks, she said.

German media reported Wednesday that investigators believe an emergency braking system in the truck may have prevented more deaths.

Daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcaster NDR cited unnamed officials familiar with the investigation saying the tractor unit had a mechanism that automatically slams the brakes when a collision is detected.

The news outlets also reported that Amri, whom German authorities had deemed a potential threat months before the attack, allegedly searched the internet for instructions on how to make explosives and first attempted to contact the Islamic State group in February.